


wishes upon a star long gone

by Evelyn_fireheart



Series: when you glance back and see [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-27 16:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20763452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evelyn_fireheart/pseuds/Evelyn_fireheart
Summary: Mary Parker lived a fast-paced life.She skipped 2 grades when the lessons got too easy and the work got too boring. (They said she couldn't -she was a female genius in the 80's of course they said she couldn't- but Mary Carter had steel in her veins and fire burning in her soul. She refused to stand still in the face of their bigotry.)Then she moved to America for university and life got much more complicated. Falling in love is harder when you know what you're meant to become. Her mother worked in MI6, her grandfather was a chief of the SSR and her grandmother was a war legend. She grew up with glorified warlords as her uncles, and her entire family was the subject of a government cover up.Mary knew war. She knew the grit and hellfire of it, and didn't want that for him. Richard didn't deserve that.But he joined too.She wouldn't understand the consequences of this until later. (Until their son came along, and his cries reminded her of the battlefield.)





	wishes upon a star long gone

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so tired.  
I tried to upload this-it failed and then deleted itself when I didn't notice in time. Fun. So I rewrote some of the chapters but they're not the same and it's annoying me.
> 
> Oh well.  
Enjoy.

“He’s clearly too good for that school, Mary!” Dr Richard Parker said. His voice barely raised above talking, teetering only slightly into shouting. They had been on the way back from a company-wide meeting and were ‘discussing’ the report Peter’s kindergarten teacher had sent home. It was a battle the parents of all genius kids knew- the joys of a normal life versus the brilliance of kickstarting the future.

“Rich, darling,” she soothed. Mary Parker was a caring mother and a loving wife, but what many forgot was that she was also a ground-breaking scientist in many fields. Their son had inherited many traits from them both, their love for bio-chemistry for one, but from her he had inherited an acute emotional awareness. Over her years in MI6, Mary had cultivated that awareness into adept skill at manipulation. It was something that made her a great CIA agent, and something Richard himself had fallen in love with.

Too bad he could rarely tell when she used it on him.

“At this stage, it barely matters what school he attends. He is doing wonderfully there and has been making independent connections with other students; that’s great, for a child his age, Richard!” She kept her voice soft- but firm. Otherwise, her carefully twisted words would lose effect. “Besides, you and I both know there are more important things than grades and facts and variables for a child’s development. He needs the emotional one-on-one support the teachers there can offer him.”

“I’m not disagreeing with you, love,” Richard said hesitantly. Dr Parker released a breathy sigh, safe in the knowledge she had already won. A reassuring smile unfurled across her lips. It was only slightly tinged with victory. “I just- don’t you think it would be in Peter’s best interest for him to start higher level classes, help him start to find out what he’s interested in?”

“Honey, we have **time**. We have years to help him nurture his interests and find what he wants to do, where he wants to go in this crazy world. And he’ll be brilliant, my darling, there’s no doubt about that, so don’t worry.” Richard eased, a weight lifting off his shoulders momentarily.

Mary placed a gentle hand against the side of his face. “Remember, even if allowing him this normalcy does turn out to be a mistake, there are things we can arrange for the future. Training schemes and the like. There are hundreds of people we could call, thousands of debts we could demand be repaid, honey. There’s no rush.”

“Aye. You’re right, dear. It’s just a lot of pressure- I only want the best for our son.”

“I feel the same way.” There was no one in the world Mary Parker loved more than her son. No one, not even her beloved husband. It was okay though, as she knew he didn’t love her as much as he loved Peter, either. Perhaps that’s how it’s meant to be. A child stumbling through the world on new-born feet, and parents racing behind, constantly trying to catch up. It didn’t matter too much if one tripped sometimes, she supposed.

The other parent wouldn’t stop chasing after their kid, wouldn’t pause in their quest to keep their child safe, even if it was to help their fallen partner. The thought was reassuring. After all, it’s why there are usually more than one carer -so the kid is never alone.

Richard Parker sighed, drooping into his wife’s tender caress. “Since when is parenting this hard?”

Mary laughed, warmth filling her at the way her husband perked up at it even as she mocked him. “I think- yeah, I think it’s been this hard since the very beginning darling,” she said, a wry smile lifting the corners of her lips as she smoothed her hands over his shoulders. He softened, natural as breathing, in response.

“Besides,” Mary said with a raised brow, “no matter how hard this is, it’s not rocket science.”

“Yeah,” Richard groaned. “I can do that!”

“No, you can’t.”

“No, I can’t.”

Mary thinks -just for a second- that she could live in this moment forever, in the impossibilities of it. There they stood; each decorated CIA agents and overly-qualified scientists, each radicals and futurists and an explosive mix of raw intelligence and chaos, and they had a child. A small, dependent, beautiful thing.

It should be impossible, because no one could ever love someone this much and live from it. It should be impossible, because they’re spies, and love is nothing but a distraction at best and a death sentence at worst.

Most of all, though, it should be impossible because -in that moment- they aren’t any of those things. They aren’t scientists on the precipice of something magnificent, with a world-changing discovery in cross-species genetics already under their belts. They aren’t agents, trying to infiltrate a potentially corrupt organisation.

All they are, in that moment, is parents. Laughing, teasing and taking strength from each other when the strain of caring for their wonderful baby gets a little too tough.

It’s easy and its freeing and it’s more fun than she ever anticipated having children would be when she was first confronted with that positive pregnancy test.

This is what makes it all the more tragic in the end.

Dr Mary Parker became many things during her lifetime, and shed the skin of many more. But she died as all parents do.

Screaming with a hoarse throat, wishing that they didn’t have to go.


End file.
